nvim-glow

Neovim plugin to preview Markdown files using glow — a stylish terminal-based Markdown renderer.

Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.7 (tested up to 0.12/nightly)
• glow installed and available in $PATH

How It Works

The plugin runs glow inside a :terminal buffer, so ANSI colors and styles render natively. The -w flag is passed with the actual window width, so the output always fits without wrapping. After glow finishes rendering, the buffer switches to normal mode — you can scroll up and down with j/k, <C-d>, <C-u>, etc.

Choose between a floating window (default) or a vertical split on the right. Works with unsaved buffers too.

Installation

lazy.nvim

{
  "shcode/nvim-glow",
  cmd = "Glow",
  opts = {},
  config = function(_, opts)
    require("glow").setup(opts)
  end,
}

packer.nvim

use {
  "shcode/nvim-glow",
  config = function()
    require("glow").setup({})
  end
}

Usage

Open a Markdown file and run:

:Glow

Or preview a specific file:

:Glow path/to/file.md

Keymaps in Preview Window

Key	Action
q	Close preview
<Esc>	Close preview
<C-c>	Close preview

Preview also auto-closes when you leave the buffer.

Scrolling

After glow renders, the preview window is in normal mode. Use any vim motion to scroll:

• j/k — line by line
• <C-d>/<C-u> — half page
• gg/G — top/bottom

Configuration

require("glow").setup({
  glow_path = "",       -- Auto-detected from $PATH; override if needed
  width = 120,          -- Window width in characters (also passed to glow -w)
  height_ratio = 0.8,   -- Max window height as ratio of screen (float only)
  border = "rounded",   -- Border style (float only)
  position = "float",   -- "float" or "right" (vertical split)
  pager = false,        -- Enable pager mode (-p flag)
  style = "dark",       -- Color style: "dark", "light", "notty"
})

Commands

Command	Description
:Glow [file]	Preview current or given Markdown file
:GlowSetup <json>	Update config at runtime (JSON string)

License

MIT